How bad can a guy be when he makes you pine for Juan Pierre?

When he’s as bad as Andruw Jones.

Jones whiffed twice tonight, hit a lazy fly that fell for an error … and saw his average fall to .170.

With one homer and four RBI.

It’s time for the Dodgers to take action:

Send this guy down to the minor leagues to see if he can find his long, lost swing.

And I’m not thinkingTriple-A Las Vegas or Double-A Birmingham.

I’m thinking Single-A San Bernardino.

If Triple-A is a the staging grounds for the bigs … and Double-A is where everyone has their top prospects … I’m thinking those people could get Andruw out. It clearly isn’t difficult.

The man has struck out twice as often as he has managed a hit, 38-19.

This isn’t just an extended slow start. This is a guy who has lost his way, completely.

I saw two of his at-bats tonight. He struck out in both of them. On three pitches on the first … on four pitches on the second. In both cases he went fishing for low fastballs, striking out on a pitch out of the strike zone.

The man is awful. And I don’t care if he’s making $36.5 million for two seasons.

If the Dodgers didn’t have their pride/reputation on the line, if Andruw were some other newcomer hitting .170 with no power, they already would have demoted him. He has 112 at-bats now. And he hasn’t hit a lick. He hasn’t had a single game where he looked like a formidable hitter.

What the club needs to do is remind Jones that his contract may be guaranteed, but a spot in the major-league clubhouse is not.

Maybe he could get well in the California League. Against college kids and teens from Lancaster and Lake Elsinore and Bakersfield. Maybe.

Perhaps the change in surroundings, from the pampered life of the bigs to the bus rides of the Cal League, would light a little fire under a guy who doesn’t seem to have any sense of urgency. Who doesn’t seem to care.

Nothing like a night game at, say, Adelanto, with a 30 mph wind blowing … to get a man’s attention. Or a doubleheader on a 100-degree Sunday at San Bernardino.

Give Sixers hitting coach Henry Cruz a crack at AJ. … Dodgers hitting coach Mike Easler clearly isn’t getting through to the guy.

If Andruw Jones can still play, at all, we would find out.

Andruw probably couldn’t push Ryan Rogowski (.284 BA, 12 RBI) or Thomas Giles (.290, three homers, 23 RBI) out of the outfield lineup for the losingest team in the Cal League, but Trayvon Robinson is struggling. Maybe AJ would be an upgrade. If he applies himself.

When Jones is tearing up the Cal League, when he’s the toast of Berdoo’s Inland Empire 66ers, then (and only then) bring him back to Dodger Stadium.

If he can’t hit the Cal League, then just write off that $36.5 million. Because the Dodgers must have at least a dozen guys under contract (including Rogowski and Giles at San Bernardino) who could do better than one homer and four RBI in 112 big-league at-bats.

Even Juan Pierre.